Every inch of the 1,400sq ft home was built from scratch, with the wood for the window and door frames coming from nearby trees.

The pair are among a handful of Irish people who are reviving the ancient craft of "cob house" building, in which householders build their own homes with their bare hands, using a mixture of mud, wood and salvaged materials.

To build a cob house, clay and sand is mixed, then straw is added and, as the mixture dries, it is cut into blocks like large peat briquettes.

Instead of using cement, the builders press and mould the moist mud-bricks to form the walls.

Cob builders come from all walks of life. While Feile is an architect and Colin a carpenter, professional qualifications are not needed to build your own home.

Indeed, the couple learned how to do it during a ten-day workshop — and are now passing on their skills by running their own 'Mud and Wood' workshops (an introductory course costs €80, and a full weekend design course costs €175).

Some cob houses are reminiscent of the Hobbit houses imagined by JRR Tolkien in his epic Lord of the Ring

Among those who have constructed mud houses are Michael Masterson, who rebuilt an old cob house in Firmullagh, Co Longford, and physiotherapist Gareth Phelan and partner Ciara Barrett who built in ­Tullaghan, Co Leitrim.

With no expensive building materials to buy, no architects' fees and no labour costs, the eco-friendly ­technique saves home-owners a fortune.

In fact, it is possible to build a house for €1,000, say Thomas and Ulrike Riedmuller, who run workshops at The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability in Enniskeane, West Cork.

Feile and Colin, who learned the craft from the Riedmullers, splashed out on expensive insulating materials and rendering, but their house still only cost €80 per square foot, far less than the average build bill of €120 per square foot.

Thomas and Ulrike's two-storey house is plastered with a mixture made from hemp and, like most cob houses, has two-foot thick walls.

The Sligo cob house won the best ecological building gong in the Save our Planet Awards 2013

They also have a composting toilet, wood-burning stove, solar panels and a larder instead of a fridge.

They have a cob-guesthouse next door for students and volunteers, who learn the craft fee-free in return for work.

Cob houses — some of them reminiscent of the Hobbit houses imagined by JRR Tolkien in his epic Lord of the Rings — are believed to have been a feature of the Irish and British landscapes back to the days of the very first inhabitants.

While most have melted back into the earth, around 100 still survive in Ireland.

One of the oldest is the 355-year-old Fisherman’s Thatch Inn — a pub in Fisherstown, Co Laois, where the whitewashed walls are partly built of mud and straw.

Its owner, Sean Ward, is a former security guard who moved from Dublin with his wife Elizabeth back in 1995.

He said: "There's something about the mud walls that makes the place very relaxing. People are meant to live in the earth.

"It goes back to the days of the cavemen, when you have mud walls and a turf fire.

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